Final answer:
Information gained through observation, experience, or experiment forms the empirical basis of scientific inquiry. It involves direct, measurable observations that are used to test hypotheses, and is considered to be grounded in objective, tangible evidence. The scientific method, solidified during the Enlightenment, relies on empiricism to advance knowledge.
Step-by-step explanation:
The information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment is a fundamental component of the scientific approach to understanding the natural world. This empirical knowledge is a form of data that comes through our senses or via instruments that augment human senses, providing a basis for scientific investigations. Observations are anything that is detected through human senses or with instruments and measuring devices that enhance human senses, and often include the following characteristics:
- A direct, physical observation of something or a process over time.
- Something that is usually measurable or "quantifiable."
- The data resulting from an experiment, which are the observations collected to test a hypothesis.
Science is an empirical way of knowing, relying on methodical observation, hypothesis formulation, experimentation, and theorizing to confirm or falsify a hypothesis. This process results in empirical knowledge that is grounded in objective, tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again, regardless of who is observing. Empiricism, championed by philosophers like John Locke, asserts that knowledge is based on experience, is tentative, probabilistic, and always subject to new evidence and reinterpretation.